Experimental cancer drug showing effectiveness

U.S. – An experimental drug is showing promise in treating some lung cancers. As reported by HealthDay News, the new drug crizotinib has shown some effectiveness in the treatment of lung cancer tumors with a specific genetic mutation, and researchers remain hopeful that similar results can be found in treating cancers in other areas of the body that have the same mutation.

Dr. Geoffrey Shapiro, director of the Early Drug Development Center and associate professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, who co-authored the study, is quoted in the report as stating of the findings, “These are very positive results in lung cancer patients who had received other treatments that didn’t work or worked only briefly… The bottom line is that there was a 72 percent chance the tumor would shrink or remain stable for at least six months.”

More information about the study may be found in the Oct. 28 publication of the New England Journal of Medicine.